Police are preparing for Black Friday in Flushing and College Point by beefing up police presence and posting traffic officers on busy roads, according to authorities.
While there weren’t many crimes in the area during last year’s Black Friday, police at the 109th Precinct hope that the increase in police presence will prevent the possibility of shoppers getting robbed and stores being burglarized, according Detective Kevin O’Donnell.
“We’re expecting large crowds to be coming out to Flushing and College Point and we want everyone to have a safe Black Friday,” he said.
The police will be concentrating on two areas. The first location, The Shops at SkyView Center, will be particularly important to police because the Target housed in the mall will stay open all night on Friday into Saturday. The other area is in College Point on a section of 20th Avenue lined with strip malls. Just north of Flushing, the shopping center has several strip malls next to one another. And while there is parking, traffic backups from exit 15 off the Whitestone Expressway on regular weekends.
“Traffic is going to be a mess out there but we’re hoping to keep things as smooth as possible,” O’Donnell said.
Shoppers can expect to see an increase in police beginning on Thursday afternoon, a concentrated presence that will continue into Saturday.
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